Miceli Dairy Products describes plan for expansion in Cleveland

View full sizeScott Shaw, The Plain DealerRosa E. Quinones, a worker at Miceli Dairy Products in Cleveland, opens a vat door to allow ricotta cheese to float off onto a conveyor belt. The company produces more than 100,000 pounds of ricotta a day. Expansion plans are expected to double production within the next two years.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It seems an unlikely place for one of the nation's largest ricotta cheese makers.

The 62-year-old Miceli Dairy Products on East 90th Street in Cleveland is surrounded by vacant land and run-down buildings. But Chief Executive Officer Joe Miceli, who grew up in a nearby house along with his siblings, sees a neighborhood full of potential.

"They call this the forgotten triangle," Miceli said. "That's not the way we look at it. We think it's an ideal spot."

It's the spot where the Miceli family plans to break ground this summer on a $16 million to $20 million expansion of its operation south of Buckeye Road that will add 60 workers to its 138-employee work force within five years.

The first phase, which will include additions to the current plant as well as to property behind it, is expected to be done by mid-2012, enabling the company to double production of ricotta cheese. The second phase, to be completed a few years later, includes a new mozzarella and provolone factory, a bio-digester and waste treatment facility.

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Those plans became a reality this week when the company was awarded a $5.49 million loan through the Small Business Administration's 504 program, which helps small businesses with plant and equipment expansion. The loan is the largest in the program's history. Other funding will come from Cleveland banks.

"It's not only the largest loan ever done in the history of the SBA, but more importantly it's significant because of what it means for Cleveland," said Gil Goldberg, director of the Cleveland SBA district, which includes most of the northern half of Ohio. "A family owned business that got its start in the neighborhoods can stay and expand in Cleveland, creating new jobs."

Miceli never planned to move -- not when other communities tried to entice him with incentives or even when Cleveland suggested he move to another area. It's not easy buying several small parcels of land, said Tracey Nichols, Cleveland's economic development director.

The company hopes to buy 12.6 acres for a facility to transform waste from the cheese into energy.

A vacant building torn down two weeks ago at East 90th and Buckeye Road was last used as a grocery store -- a few groceries to be exact.

"First it was an A&P. Then it was Krogers and then SaveMore," Miceli recalled. "That's where our new visitors center will be, along with a test kitchen and a research-and-development center.

"We're in a great location. We're just over a mile from Cleveland Clinic, a stone's throw from the new Juvenile Center on East 93rd and about three miles from downtown. We're also close to major freeway interchanges," he said.

Nichols admires the family's allegiance and commitment to the neighborhood, which includes hiring and promoting from within the company. About half the company's employees live in Cleveland and about a third are minorities, she said.

"A lot of people I've met have moved up from sweeping a broom to operating equipment and learning new roles," she said. "They're really a company that takes care of their neighborhood. Their history is there."

The company started when Miceli's father, who worked on a dairy farm in Newbury Township as a youth, started making cheese from unsold milk. When a bottling company went on strike, the family got serious about making money with cheese.

"One door closed and another one opened," Miceli recalled. Back then, curdling was done by hand and cheese was sold in horse-drawn wagons and pickup trucks that had to be hand-cranked.

Today, the company uses state-of-the art technology, large vats and conveyor belts to make more than 8,000 pounds of ricotta every hour with whey, milk and cream. It also makes 70,000 pounds of shredded mozzarella a day.

The company produces more than 60 products, ranging from mozzarella sticks and shredded cheese sold in grocery stores throughout the country to cheese packaged for food service distributors, schools and government institutions.

"We're like any other business. You can't stay the same," Miceli said. "You have to keep moving ahead."